2025-26 regular season · December 23, 2025
No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.
Kraken at Kings, Dec 23, 2025: who deserved to win?
The Kraken beat the Kings 3–2, but the replays lean toward the Kings: they take 6 of 10 with the same day's form. Luck ran their way: shooting alone was worth 37 points of win probability to the Kraken.
The biggest swing (P2, 18:50 left): Jordan Eberle scored on a wrist shot from 8 feet, worth 16 points of win probability to the Kraken.
Final
| 3 | |
| 2 |
Replay with same day's form
Luck index +61 Kraken very lucky · −61 Kings
Each team’s own shots from this game, resampled into new games 4,000 times, each a goal at its chance, with the power plays the penalties gave and the pulled goalie at the end: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works
Ten replays. Kraken win 4, Kings win 6.
- 1 SEA 4 LAK 1
- 2 SEA 4 LAK 2
- 3 SEA 4 LAK 3
- 4 SEA 5 LAK 4
- 5 SEA 2 LAK 3
- 6 SEA 2 LAK 3
- 7 SEA 4 LAK 6
- 8 SEA 0 LAK 3
- 9 SEA 1 LAK 4
- 10 SEA 1 LAK 6
Three other ways to ask
Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.
Before puck drop
No closing line for this game.
Same teams, fresh game
Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.
Only coin-flips re-rolled
Every shot redrawn at its chance, overtime and the shootout replayed as near coin flips; the shots themselves and every call fixed. The narrowest view of luck.
How 4,000 replays ended
Kraken win 39% of them, Kings 61%. The line is what actually happened: Kraken by 1.
Show as a table
| Final margin in the replays | Share of replays |
|---|---|
| Kraken by 3+ | 10.5% |
| Kraken by 2 | 7.5% |
| Kraken by 1 | 20.7% |
| Kings by 1 | 22.0% |
| Kings by 2 | 11.3% |
| Kings by 3+ | 28.0% |
Where the luck was
What the luck was worth
Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A post hit in a blowout counts for nothing; the same post with a minute left in a tie game can be most of a win.
| Shooting | Unblocked attempts | Goals | Expected goals | Above expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 3 | 2.07 | +0.93 | |
| 56 | 2 | 3.41 | −1.41 |
Regulation with both goalies in. Expected goals: our model of each shot’s chance from where and how it was taken (distance, angle, shot type, rebound, rush, strength), adjusted for the shooter’s and the goalie’s records. A team above expected finished better or met a weaker night in goal; 75% of the gap counts as luck (why that share).
Calls
Every penalty that put a team on the power play, and every goal taken off the board on review, with what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment. Calls don’t count toward luck by default: who draws penalties repeats from game to game like a skill (how calls are valued). Switch them on below.
| When | Call | Win probability for |
|---|---|---|
| P1 0:32 | Tripping on the Kings (Brian Dumoulin): 2 minutes on the power play | +4% SEA |
| P2 1:37 | Interference on the Kraken (Jordan Eberle): 2 minutes on the power play | +3% LAK |
| P3 18:17 | Hooking on the Kraken (Berkly Catton): 2 minutes on the power play | +3% LAK |
| P3 6:20 | Delaying game face off violation on the Kings (Alex Laferriere): 2 minutes on the power play | +6% SEA |
| P3 5:57 | Tripping on the Kraken (Matty Beniers): 2 minutes on the power play | +6% LAK |
When it happened
Kings’ chance of winning
As low as 0% and as high as 54%. Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.
| # | When | What happened | Win probability for | Next drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P2 18:50 | Jordan Eberle scored on a wrist shot from 8 feetShooting · 16% chance | +16% SEA | – |
| 2 | P2 12:34 | Frederick Gaudreau scored on a wrist shot from 43 feetShooting · 2% chance | +16% SEA | – |
| 3 | P2 3:58 | Ben Meyers scored on a wrist shot from 23 feetShooting · 5% chance | +8% SEA | – |
| 4 | P2 3:47 | Kevin Fiala scored on a backhand shot from 7 feetShooting · 14% chance | +7% LAK | – |
| 5 | P2 2:21 | Andrei Kuzmenko’s wrist shot from 3 feet was savedShooting · 37% chance | +6% SEA | – |
| 6 | P3 11:15 | Andrei Kuzmenko scored on a wraparound from 4 feetShooting · 6% chance | +14% LAK | – |
| 7 | P3 5:57 | Tripping on the Kraken (Matty Beniers): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls | +6% LAK | – |
| 8 | P3 0:24 | Quinton Byfield missed the net with a wrist shot from 12 feetShooting · 14% chance | +7% SEA | – |
Adjust the assumptions
Think finishing is more skill than we do, or that the calls were luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.
Only coin-flips re-rolled
Kraken 28% · Kings 72%
- Final margin
- Kraken by 1
- Luck in goals
- 1.7 for the Kraken
- Luck-adjusted margin
- Kings by 0.7
- Replay with same day's form
- Kraken 39% · Kings 61% unchanged: why
About these numbers
Play-by-play from the NHL via fastRhockey; expected goals, in-game win probability and the replays are our own models, fitted on every game since 2018-19 (methodology and validation). Blocked shots aren’t replayed (their location is the block’s, not the shot’s). No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.
More from week 12, 2025-26
- Kraken at Ducks Dec 22, 2025 · SEA 3–1 · replay 24% for the winner
- Flyers at Kraken Dec 28, 2025 · SEA 4–1 · replay 25% for the winner
- Oilers at Flames Dec 27, 2025 · CGY 3–2 · replay 52% for the winner
- Avalanche at Golden Knights Dec 27, 2025 · COL 6–5 SO · replay 56% for the winner
- Blue Jackets at Kings Dec 22, 2025 · CBJ 3–1 · replay 60% for the winner
- Ducks at Kings Dec 27, 2025 · LAK 6–1 · replay 62% for the winner
- Sharks at Canucks Dec 27, 2025 · SJS 6–3 · replay 70% for the winner
- Sharks at Golden Knights Dec 23, 2025 · VGK 7–2 · replay 75% for the winner
- Canucks at Flyers Dec 22, 2025 · PHI 5–2 · replay 77% for the winner
- Flames at Oilers Dec 23, 2025 · EDM 5–1 · replay 82% for the winner
- Blackhawks at Stars Dec 27, 2025 · CHI 4–3 SO · replay 27% for the winner
- Sabres at Senators Dec 23, 2025 · BUF 3–2 OT · replay 29% for the winner